Masteries

Offense:
21

Defense:
9

Utility:
0

Laning Phase

Bard does a good amount of damage early game, using q to stun and auto attacking a few times can chunk out about 170-250 damage off your opponents, depending on who it is. When in laning phase, poke your enemies with q. This will mostly cause them to back off a bit, allowing you to farm very well. You may not even need blue buffs due to nearby chimes.

Teamfights

Bard is not good in teamfights if you do not know how to use him. In Teamfights, you should mostly use Tempered Fate on tanks, leaving the squishies easy to kill.

Roaming

Obviously Bard is a roamer, he has chimes that will increase his movement. When roaming to different lanes, use magical journey to engage in a fight, and if you have Tempered Fate use it before engaging with Magical Journey if you're sure you can secure the kill(s).

Unique Skills

Bard's Tempered Fate has unique uses, whether if it's to escape, engage, steal dragon/baron, or even stop a teammate's death from ignite, it will come in handy.

Pros/Cons

Pros: Has Handy Escape Moves.
Portable Hourglass.

Cons: If you play with a Bard, you probably are trolled.

Combos

Now Bard only has 1 damage move, which is his Q. So how do we combo? Once you get Trinity Force, you can execute these combos very good.

Combo 1: Head to Head

When having a one versus one, this is the combo you will want to use.

Q + AA + W + AA then start Kiting, and repeat this combo.

Note: It doesn't matter who you use W on, the Trinity Force active will go on if it does not heal anyone.

Combo 2: Wander

When roaming, use this combo to execute or set up a fight for your teammates.

R + E + AA + Q

Note: Ult the enemies, Magical Journey inside, Stun them, and Just use W to heal or boost your teammates.

Teamfight Combo:

In teamfights, this will be an important, and hard combo to land, you will need good accuracy.

R + Q + AA

Note: The hard part about this combo, is that you have to ult on the Tanks, if you get the squishies, you are most likely screwed